On the carved lacquer long table sat a white porcelain Ru ware brush rest. A small brush rested lightly on the left side of the brush rest, the brush handle mottled with tear stains of Xiangfei bamboo. Ink had congealed on the fine, soft goat-hair bristles, showing that it hadn’t been moved for quite some time. The ink water in the Duan inkstone beside it had also long since dried up.
The person from the Ren family salt field who came to report the situation stood just outside the curtain.
Jiang Xuening sat by the table, her deep, quiet gaze falling together with the gradually dimming twilight outside the window onto these two thin sheets of letter paper before her. Listening to the voice of the person outside, she became somewhat lost in thought.
“Half a month ago everything was still fine, just waiting for the first batch of salt to come out—we had even found buyers. But unexpectedly, when things were going most smoothly, this kind of incident occurred, and the entire salt field burned up. Well salt in Shu is mostly from fire wells, drawing gas to burn and boil salt. This time, we were careless and ignited the flame gas in the salt well, and underground fire spread across the area. By the time this subordinate departed from Shu, the zhuotong wells constructed at the salt field had all completely burned away…
“The head of household knew this was a major matter and sent someone to the capital first to report.
“This letter was personally written by the head of household. He specifically instructed this lowly one to tell Miss that the Madam’s fingers were slightly burned—though not serious, she couldn’t write the letter herself, so the head of household wrote it on her behalf. He asks that Miss not worry too much.”
The handwriting on the letter was indeed more flowing than the letters You Fangying had written back in the past—a beautiful pavilion-style script that one could tell at a glance was personally written by Ren Weizhi.
The letter generally explained the salt field’s current situation.
However, the degree of the salt field fire and the losses suffered somewhat exceeded Jiang Xuening’s expectations. In her previous life, she had heard that when the zhuotong wells were first built, a fire was caused by inadequate prevention, igniting the flame gas and triggering underground fire. In this life, since You Fangying had married over there, even if she didn’t care about Ren Weizhi or the salt field, she had still given You Fangying a hint to be more careful and establish proper safeguards. She had thought that this way, even if the fire couldn’t be completely avoided, it should prevent trouble before it started and minimize losses as much as possible. But unexpectedly, not only was it not prevented, it was actually even more serious than in her previous life!
Tang’er and Lian’er were both waiting outside.
The evening courtyard was bathed in the remaining glow of sunset.
Jiang Xuening glanced out the window, raising her hand to lightly press her brow, only asking: “In Shu, when drawing gas to boil salt, prevention of underground fire has always been of utmost importance. Even if Young Master Ren didn’t take it seriously, the long-term workers boiling salt shouldn’t have taken it lightly either. How could a fire break out, and how could it develop to this extent?”
The person standing outside the curtain immediately became somewhat evasive.
Jiang Xuening could see that the matter didn’t seem so simple, so she said: “Was it man-made disaster?”
That person’s head lifted up, and several notes of indignation and anger seeped into his voice as he said: “Precisely a man-made disaster! Second Miss Jiang is far away in the capital. Both the head of household and the Madam didn’t want you to worry too much about the salt field matters, so they specifically instructed this lowly one not to speak of salt field affairs, saying they had their own methods to resolve things. But this lowly one has been holding back this frustration in my chest and really can’t swallow it. What you don’t know is that the Earl of Qingyuan’s estate sent someone all the way from the capital, claiming to look after the Madam, but after arriving at the salt field, he acted tyrannically and abused his authority.”
It turned out that over half a month ago, an uninvited guest arrived at the Ren family salt field.
This person carried the Earl of Qingyuan estate’s waist token, claiming that the Earl worried You Fangying hadn’t married well and came specially to check on the situation. If there were any matters at the salt field, he could help out. After all, stewards from great households had seen much of the world and could be sent to handle any dealings with officials.
But these were just pretty words.
On the very first day this person moved in, he demanded to be served with fine wine, fine food, and fine accommodations. Naturally Shu couldn’t compare to the prosperity of the capital, and the Ren family salt field was right in the midst of pioneering hardship—how could it satisfy him?
So within three days, he flew into a thunderous rage, even pointing at You Fangying’s nose and cursing her as a bastard.
What kind of easy-going temperament did You Fangying have?
After marrying into Sichuan, she and Ren Weizhi treated each other with mutual respect, raising the tray to eyebrow level. The money owed to the long-term workers—not a single coin less. In her daily treatment of people, regardless of their status, her face always carried a smile, warm and gentle.
With such a good young mistress, who wouldn’t praise her?
From top to bottom, everyone liked her.
This steward from the capital, relying on being the young mistress’s family, relying on having the Earl of Qingyuan’s estate behind him, as a servant actually wanted to trample on his master’s head!
He also frequently beat and scolded the servants and salt field workers.
He would also constantly go in and out of the salt field, pointing fingers at things he didn’t understand. Even if others stopped to catch their breath and drink some water, he would rebuke them for laziness.
Within a few days, everyone at the salt field had developed extreme loathing for this person.
When speaking to this point, the hatred in the voice of the person who came from Shu to report the situation also reached its peak: “That day, an old long-term worker at the salt field was drawing gas to boil salt and inadvertently blocked his path. He had been drinking and wouldn’t listen to others’ explanations, insisting on grabbing the old worker to beat him. Others who had long been displeased with him came forward to break up the fight. Unexpectedly, he erupted even more violently, grabbing a bamboo pole nearby and beating others together with him. This beating caused trouble—the bamboo pipe for drawing gas broke. Zhuotong wells are made of bamboo, and combined with the surging flame gas from the ground, they ignite immediately upon contact with fire. Many brothers were injured trying to rescue people. This old bastard, as soon as the accident happened, was so frightened he hid away, and even trampled others to use as scapegoats!”
The Earl of Qingyuan’s estate had actually sent someone to Shu?
Jiang Xuening was truly shocked, her brow furrowing tightly.
With a turn of her thoughts, she understood the reason in just a moment, and her expression gradually darkened.
Initially, when You Fangying married to Shu, the Earl’s estate paid no attention.
But as the Ren family salt field share price climbed higher, and You Yue held quite a portion of shares in her hands, with the Earl’s estate being a hollow, declining household, naturally everyone up and down would set their hearts on the salt field. Sending someone under the pretext of looking after You Fangying while actually carrying out monitoring, interference, and erosion—what they sought was probably not small.
However, going there with such malicious intentions, they couldn’t possibly do anything good.
The salt field catching fire was thus within expectations.
Even if they luckily avoided trouble this time, in the future they might not be so fortunate!
Human hearts are insatiable—the snake swallowing the elephant.
Looking at You Yue’s greatly alarmed appearance at the palace gate today, as if the sky were falling, she probably couldn’t imagine no matter what that this calamity was of her own making, could she?
Jiang Xuening’s disgust toward this whole family deepened.
She lightly tapped the table once and asked: “How are the others?”
That person said: “Replying to Second Miss Jiang, because the salt field terrain is open and we saw the opportunity quickly, no one lost their life. However, some long-term workers who had boiled salt their whole lives couldn’t bear to see that snowflake salt destroyed in vain in the fire and desperately tried to rescue some. Some were struck and injured, but none very seriously. Right now, doctors have been called to treat them. The young mistress even took out her own private money for medicine. Aside from losing the salt field, everything else is fine.”
Jiang Xuening nodded: “That’s good then.”
Before You Fangying “married” Ren Weizhi and went to Shu, she had already instructed her on how to handle unexpected situations. She imagined both You Fangying and Ren Weizhi would follow those instructions.
Then the next matter would be quite simple for her.
Jiang Xuening raised her eyes to look outside the curtain and said: “Young Master Ren sent you at just the right time—I’m precisely short someone here to handle affairs.”
The news that the Ren family salt field had an accident was like a ball of fire—in the blink of an eye it burned through the paper wrapped around it.
The Shuxiang Inn practically exploded.
The customers in the inn didn’t decrease but increased instead, each person wanting to know how the Ren family salt field would deal with the aftermath after spreading their operations so wide.
In the Earl of Qingyuan’s estate, You Yue was so anxious that blisters formed on her lips, constantly glancing toward the door.
The Earl of Qingyuan sat behind the desk in his study. Seeing her like this made anger surge from nowhere. Just a few days ago he had still been amiable and pleasant toward You Yue, but now it was as if his face had changed. His voice carried sharp severity: “I said long ago that none of these merchants are reliable, but you insisted on showing off your abilities, spending money to buy some worthless shares! Now look—the salt field burned down! However much money you had, it’s all water in a bamboo basket—gone! While the news has just come out and the share price hasn’t fallen too badly yet, hurry up and sell it all! Recover as much of the original silver as you can!”
You Yue was already irritated, and hearing these words, her face twisted somewhat.
Rarely did she fail to follow the usual hierarchy of respect.
When her gaze returned to look at her own father, she actually sneered coldly and harshly: “Father’s words now truly stand without back pain! Just days ago, weren’t you eagerly asking me how much it had risen? Now that something’s happened, you act as if you had prophetic foresight and even come to rebuke me!”
The Earl of Qingyuan was cowardly in general, but in his own home, he had always been the one to put on airs most severely. How could he tolerate such sharp sarcasm from her?
A surge of fire rushed up from his heart.
He rose from his seat, slamming the table, ready to teach this rebellious daughter a lesson, pointing at her nose and cursing loudly: “Outrageous, outrageous! The estate raises you and provides for you! You speak of your private money—isn’t that still given to you by the estate?!”
The Earl’s wife didn’t understand business matters either. She only knew that since the salt field had an accident, the share price would definitely fall, and her daughter’s business had taken a loss. Though she was also worried, You Yue was after all her own daughter.
Seeing the Earl of Qingyuan erupting and about to create a scene, she raised her sleeve to wipe tears and came forward crying to restrain him.
While crying, she said: “My Lord, Yue’er is going to be selected as a princess consort—she can’t be beaten! No matter what, she’s still your own daughter. Right now, hasn’t the share price not dropped to the bottom yet? We can advise her to sell off the shares early and that’s that.”
Then turning to persuade You Yue: “At this critical juncture, don’t let any incident occur. If people in the capital see this and laugh at us, where will our Earl estate’s face be? Since you fancy Prince Linzi, even if he finds out, it wouldn’t be good. Daughter, take a step back and let this matter end here. Selling at this time will still turn a profit after all.”
How could You Yue be willing to listen?
She simply felt her parents were impossibly foolish: “Sell for profit? At a time like this when the news has already spread, do you think everyone in the capital is kindhearted? The salt field had an accident—who would still buy shares that are destined to lose money? You may be willing to sell but I’m afraid no one is willing to buy! Since that’s the case, why not take a gamble? The salt field had an accident, but that fellow surnamed Ren and the little hussy aren’t dead yet, are they? With some money in hand, they might not be unable to make a comeback!”
She glared with determined stubbornness, even revealing a somewhat terrifying violent aura.
Everyone was stunned.
After the Earl’s wife froze momentarily, she cried even more heartbreakingly. The Earl was even more consumed by rage and lost his reason, grabbing a rattan cane not far beside him and charging toward You Yue, cursing loudly: “Rebellious daughter, rebellious daughter!”
Seeing the Earl of Qingyuan erupt to such a ferocious degree, You Yue felt somewhat afraid in her heart.
However, she absolutely refused to accept that this matter she’d done would fail like this. She forcibly held back her breath in her throat, raised her head, straightened her back, and said resolutely: “Profits are mine, losses are also mine—what does it have to do with any of you? When it’s time to sell, I’ll naturally sell!”
She flung her sleeve and walked out of the room.
Soon after, she heard the sound of bottles and jars smashing in the study behind her, but she didn’t stop. Instead, she walked directly back to her own room. Only after entering the door, closing it, with no one else around, did she begin trembling, shaking continuously. The color drained completely from her face, revealing a bleak, pallid hue.
“How could this be, how could this be…”
You Yue covered her face, her body gradually sliding down, finally revealing a bit of panic and helplessness away from others’ eyes.
The following period could be called painful torment.
Clearly there weren’t many days left until Prince Linzi’s consort selection, yet she couldn’t think about food or drink because of the Ren family salt field shares, tossing and turning restlessly. The face that she had finally managed to nourish to jade-like luster these past days visibly grew haggard. Dark circles accumulated beneath her eyes that even the finest cosmetics couldn’t conceal. She even became somewhat absent-minded, standing up at any little sound to ask if news had come from the salt field.
But the news from the Shuxiang Inn side never changed.
It was that the salt field fire was serious, nearly burning everything clean, but both Ren Weizhi and You Fangying were fine and would proceed to rebuild the salt field.
How could such news alone be convincing?
There were many people doing business under heaven, and even more who fell down and couldn’t get back up.
Most people in their hearts weren’t optimistic.
On the very day news of the salt field fire arrived, some people frantically tried to sell off shares they had bought. Unfortunately, this news spread too widely. Everyone knew an accident had occurred, and few were willing to spend money taking over as foolish scapegoats bearing losses.
Thus, though shares were listed, no one was willing to buy.
The price then dropped day by day.
At first it was still one thousand six hundred wen, then it became one thousand five hundred wen, one thousand four hundred wen.
On the fourth day, it even plummeted directly by five hundred wen!
Because on this day, that Boss Lu of Youhuang Pavilion in the capital, who held the most shares, also couldn’t withstand the shock of the salt field accident. After thinking it over carefully, probably seeking stability, he threw out ten thousand shares first, attempting to cut his losses.
When the news reached Jiang Xuening, she was sitting before a chess board studying patterns. Black and white pieces had already covered half the board. Upon hearing this, her gaze lifted somewhat strangely.
After quite a long while, she smiled.
In her dark pupils, a trace of cunning flickered faintly. She lightly tapped her chin with that chess piece and said: “Back then, he took advantage of my misfortune to drive down the price and buy my shares. I thought this profiteer could hold out much longer! Didn’t expect he also threw them out…”
Standing outside was precisely Liu Yang, the person who had come from the salt field to report news some time ago. He had been staying in the capital for quite some days now but couldn’t quite see through all the thoughts of this Second Miss Jiang.
He hesitated a moment before asking: “Should we take this opportunity to buy in?”
Jiang Xuening pressed the chess piece back onto the board, raising her eyebrows to glance at him, saying: “What’s the rush? Right now it’s still the high price of nine hundred wen. Wait for it to drop another two days.”
Moreover…
She gazed at the chess board in contemplation: encountering this kind of situation for the first time, even Lu Xian couldn’t remain steady, so how could a foolish person like You Yue remain completely unmoved and show not the slightest panic?
Could she actually be a gambler putting everything on one throw?
Recently, Xiao Dingfei’s side had been spending money like flowing water.
The critical moment was fast approaching.
Jiang Xuening calculated the Earl of Qingyuan estate’s situation and suddenly conceived a plan. She said to Liu Yang outside: “The people from the Earl of Qingyuan estate haven’t seen you, have they?”